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The Train to Nowhere MAG
When I was a boy, I could see my future
Waiting at the end of a tunnel-vision.
I wanted to be it, live it – the future –
So I hopped a train and rode that tunnel,
Down, down, down to the light on the other side.
There were people standing in the tunnel as I rushed by –
Some strangers, some recognizable –
But on the train, I was alone;
And I wasn’t stopping until I had reached my future.
I could still see it ahead of me,
But the light on the other side never got closer;
I went faster to make up for lost time.
Soon the people outside the train emptied one-by-one
As I shuttled by,
And there were no more lights,
And I could no longer see my future,
And all that existed was me, an old man,
In this train,
In this tunnel-vision, going nowhere.
And I wished I could go back.
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Everybody, in some way, imagines their future and the ways they would want it to be. Sometimes, that vision distracts us from the only reality, the beauty of experiencing now. The future is simply an actualization of the now, every day. When I got to the point where I could no longer see my future, or that I had reached the point where my future was supposed to have turned out differently, I thought that maybe I rushed all of the moments in exchange for that future that never really existed. Tunnel-vision towards a certain goal may get you there, but you might look back at that point and wonder if it was worth sacrificing the experience of the present.